Review of A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Something I have been incredibly grateful for while I’m unemployed is my local library system. I happen to live in an area with a solid library and multiple branches in every neighborhood, so if I want books, DVDs, CDs, or even video games, they’ll provide it for free. They even got rid of fees to get more people to come in, and I don’t think theft has become a bigger problem.

I’ve been really tapping into the library for all of the new movie releases, especially since I don’t have a car and lost my AMC A List because of that. I saw no point in continuing to pay for the subscription if I couldn’t physically get myself to the movies anymore, so I cut that off. It was through my library I continued to see movies primarily, as I could get new DVDs after some time through them.

That was how I ended up watching A Complete Unknown. I had no interest in watching the movie, but when I saw that it was available at the library, I checked it out and sat down with my sister’s DVD player to watch it on a Friday night.

All of that said and done, let’s get into the review part of this post!

The story of Bob Dylan’s rise in the music world and the struggles that came with it.

This movie opens in the year 1961, when a young Bob Dylan decides to make his start in New York City. He hitchhikes his way into the city, seeking to meet the singer Woody Guthrie. Woody is in the hospital though, as he has Huntington’s, and Bob finds him there with Pete Seeger, another singer and activist in the American music scene.

Bob decides to perform for Woody in his bed, and both the musicians are impressed by his talent. Pete brings Bob into his home and decides to help him out in the local scene, bringing him to an open mic night where a lot of music industry folks are attending, including Albert Grossman. Bob woos the crowd with his songs, and Grossman signs him onto his label.

At first Bob is forced to only to covers, which frustrates him immensely, but on the side he begins a relationship with a young girl named Sylvie. They move into an apartment together and get along well, until something happens: Sylvie calls him out for hiding who he really is to her, which is annoying. She then departs for an extensive Europe trip through her school, and Bob starts writing more politically and socially inclined songs.

He then cheats on Sylvie with Joan Baez, which proves fruitful for his artistry, but Sylvie eventually catches on after attending all of the performances and leaves Bob because of it. His rise to the top of the music world continues, although it starts to break his spirit because he thinks he’s not putting out the songs he actually wants to perform.

He goes on tour with Joan, but it ends with them arguing constantly. After one disagreement about what to perform, Bob walks off on stage, leaving her there in the middle of a performance.

From that point on, Bob goes to do his own thing, and he starts pulling out electric guitars and other instruments to change up the way folk music is presented. This causes outrage within the community, as this is a completely new direction no one has other seen before.

Bob doesn’t care though and continues recording his next album, which will be Highway 61 Revisited. He’s preparing for the Newport Folk Festival, whose organizers worry about what he’s going to perform, but he decides to bring along Sylvie and show her what’s to come.

She watches Joan and him perform a duet and decide that’s it for their relationship. She leaves and Bob tries to go after her, but he doesn’t try to make her stay. They share a cigarette before she departs, and Bob has a different decision to make: will he unveil his new sound at a performance?

Despite the label and Pete telling him not to do it, it’s Johnny Cash who convinces him to go electric. Bob does it and the audience reacts violently, but Pete’s wife prevents him and the committee from stopping Bob. He almost refuses to perform a traditional folk song until Johnny, again, hands him a guitar and convinces him to do it.

The next day, Joan finds Bob and told him he got what he wanted after all of this time. The film ends with Bob visiting Woody for the last time, then heading out on his motorcycle.

Overall Thoughts

I’ll have to admit: I came into this movie with my reservations. I was largely interested in how it depicted 1960s New York City and the artists working within the city at that time, but I was also weary of the thought of Timothee Chalamet being Bob Dylan.

As an actor he does a decent job as Dylan, but something I began thinking when I saw Wonka for the first time is that I don’t prefer Chalamet in a movie where he sings. My mom walked into a room when he was singing in character as Bob Dylan and busted out laughing, and from that point on I started laughing, too.

No shade to him; his singing voice just really isn’t for me. I also knew nothing really about Bob Dylan or the people being depicted in the movie, so a lot of the plot I was learning about these people for the first time and had no sentimental value. As a movie, this was fine and well-filmed, but I simply didn’t care for it.

Other people out there definitely love it more than I did, so if you haven’t watched and want to see it, go give it a chance. I think for me I won’t be returning to it, but I can see how others love it.

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